Your teacher will have taught you specific methods to use when answering each question. If these work for you, stick to them – it’s tempting to have a last minute panic when you look on revision websites and see different ways of doing things, but try to avoid this. English Language and Literature are very open subjects and there are many ways of tackling the same task. Know how you work well, and practise this.

Practise, practise, practise! Your teacher will give you as many additional tasks as you’d like, and the focus should be whatever has been highlighted on your PLC. Focus on improving areas of weakness, rather than working relentlessly with no particular focus.

Read. You may not love it… you may not even like it, but try to set yourself a challenge of reading every day. Treat your reading ability as a muscle; it will only get stronger if you exercise it regularly. When you have a set text, you simply have to re-read it. You may find it useful to listen to an audiobook or read with a parent, relative or friend. Some students find it helpful to answer questions as they read because they read more actively.

Give yourself a focus. If you don’t enjoy reading, make yourself play “Who Why What Where When” – read a non-fiction text each day and ask yourself these questions. It will sharpen your ability to identify information within a text.

Get used to highlighting effectively, whether in class or at home. Many students highlight without really knowing what they are looking for, so they end up with a full page of neon but are no closer to being able to answer the questions! Look for key words in the question, predict what the answers might look like, then read and highlight as you go.

Know your numbers. Try to avoid aiming for a grade, and instead make sure you know exactly how many marks you need, then work backwards. Keep talking to your teacher about where you are, and how you can improve. It really is a numbers game, and every mark matters.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar are more heavily weighted than ever now, so spend time learning key words. You are only going to learn spellings off by heart by rehearsing them and testing yourself, so put the time in now!

Timing is crucial, even when completing practice questions. You will be given very specific guidelines by your teacher on how many minutes to use per question, and you must stick to these, however challenging they feel. The minutes have been decided by the marks on offer, so don’t waste minutes that you will need later on.

There will be areas where you are stronger as well as those where you are weaker. Spend as much time developing and building your strengths as you do addressing your weaknesses. It will build your confidence, and you may find it gains you more marks in the long term than if you’d only focused on your weak points.

Trust your teacher! You may not always like what we have to say, but we have all been through GCSEs many times with many students. Many teachers are also GCSE and A Level examiners too. If you work reasonably hard over the course of the year and do what your teacher suggests, you will almost certainly achieve your target grade. Every teacher in the school wants you to do well, and everything we do is fuelled by this. We will push you to do well, but we will also give you all of the support you need to achieve your goals.

Your teacher will have taught you specific mthods to use when answering each question. If these work for you, stick to them – it’s tempting to have a last minute panic when you look on revision websites and see different ways of doing things, but try to avoid this. English Language and Literature are very open subjects and there are many ways of tackling the same task. Know how you work well, and practise this.

Practise, practise, practise! Your teacher will give you as many additional tasks as you’d like, and the focus should be whatever has been highlighted on your PLC. Focus on improving areas of weakness, rather than working relentlessly with no particular focus.

Read. You may not love it… you may not even like it, but try to set yourself a challenge of reading every day. Treat your reading ability as a muscle; it will only get stronger if you exercise it regularly. When you have a set text, you simply have to re-read it. You may find it useful to listen to an audiobook or read with a parent, relative or friend. Some students find it helpful to answer questions as they read because they read more actively.

Give yourself a focus. If you don’t enjoy reading, make yourself play “Who Why What Where When” – read a non-fiction text each day and ask yourself these questions. It will sharpen your ability to identify information within a text.

Get used to highlighting effectively, whether in class or at home. Many students highlight without really knowing what they are looking for, so they end up with a full page of neon but are no closer to being able to answer the questions! Look for key words in the question, predict what the answers might look like, then read and highlight as you go.

Know your numbers. Try to avoid aiming for a grade, and instead make sure you know exactly how many marks you need, then work backwards. Keep talking to your teacher about where you are, and how you can improve. It really is a numbers game, and every mark matters.

Spelling, punctuation and grammar are more heavily weighted than ever now, so spend time learning key words. You are only going to learn spellings off by heart by rehearsing them and testing yourself, so put the time in now!

Timing is crucial, even when completing practice questions. You will be given very specific guidelines by your teacher on how many minutes to use per question, and you must stick to these, however challenging they feel. The minutes have been decided by the marks on offer, so don’t waste minutes that you will need later on.

There will be areas where you are stronger as well as those where you are weaker. Spend as much time developing and building your strengths as you do addressing your weaknesses. It will build your confidence, and you may find it gains you more marks in the long term than if you’d only focused on your weak points.

Trust your teacher! You may not always like what we have to say, but we have all been through GCSEs many times with many students. Many teachers are also GCSE and A Level examiners too. If you work reasonably hard over the course of the year and do what your teacher suggests, you will almost certainly achieve your target grade. Every teacher in the school wants you to do well, and everything we do is fuelled by this. We will push you to do well, but we will also give you all of the support you need to achieve your goals.